“And the truth is that, when I was younger, books were given to me. Right? I want to be clear. There were books around me. There were books in the home. But the books that were given to me had nothing to do with my life.”

Good news for all the young people he feels he’s “in service to” that Reynolds is writing about kids like he was, showing it’s “okay to be like me.”

And, this is the point, isn’t it—mirrors that entice kids to read to see themselves, windows that take them to see others?

Millie Davis

Millie Davis directs the Intellectual Freedom Center at the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE). Millie's passion is working with literacy teachers across the country and beyond whose passion for their students and their students' learning is their reason for going to work each day.